Poor, poor Woman in White. After her lukewarm Broadway run she disappeared into the shadows for over a decade. My impression is that US audiences found it boring and UK audiences found it… acceptable? I was a teenager when I bought the CD in 2005 and I was truly, deeply, madly in love with the score. I don’t know why, and I know my teenage hormotional rollercoaster adds a nostalgia bias. But damn, the music in this show is just gorgeous. I would like to point out that I’ve never seen this show and its visuals (which I’ve heard were at least good) are only in my imagination.

In highschool, this is what I assumed: Woman in White was never given was a proper, solid cast recording. The budget for the album was definitely 45ish$ that went to the soundboard guy to press the record button at the beginning of the show and the stop button at the end of the show. The album is, literally, a full unabridged recording of the show with no edits, cuts, or adjustments. Oh, except for a bonus track which is identical to a track we just heard near the end of Act II. The album finishes with a clunky, bumpy song that follows a beautiful finale. This album is so beautiful but much too complete and full of dialouge for me to recommend it to a present-day theater enthusiast. As a result, I made an abridged version for my own personal use and to share with friends.

Act 1: We begin with a dark frightning encounter between our protagonist(?) and the epynomous woman in white. I actually love this opening; it starts with the sound of fast moris code style clicking contrasted against an slower, offtempo sounding brass/woodwind that continues to build. And then suddenly a man screams “Oh my God!” and this driving 4/4 ascending piano bit starts and the two characters have a songversation. We are then introduced to the woman in white’s signiture theme (“You see I am no ghost” melody) with Angela Christian belting a tune so haunting it will give you goosebumps.

Following the prolouge, the tunes become uplifted as the characters are introduced and the score moves towards an almost “pastoral” 1850s painting vibe. Despite a somewhat slow to build beginning and ALWs absolute refusal to include any harmony in the duet “I believe my heart,” I am eager to hear more.

After two rousing renditions of Lammastide, a song which is creepy, repetative, and, entirely forgettable. It sounds like Andrew forgot how to write pop music momentarily as the chorus singing (again, no harmony) a robotic melody with a flute-accented downbeat so heavy, it kind of makes you motion sick.

Good news is that following Lammastide, the real beauty begins with the Holly and Ivy songversation into Maria Friedman’s tragic All For Laura. And then finally, the 3rd or 4th reprise of You See I Am No Ghost as the finale. In the edited recording I posted, the finale is cut a milli-second too short to breathe between Acts, but honestly, the actual final seconds are not noteworthy. When I remake this edit with a FLAC rip, I will change the akwardness of this track, and add a couple seconds to breathe before Act 2, and add back in the church bells indicating the beginning of Act 2.

[Intermission]
Wow. I don’t know why harmony-less duets bother me so much. Am I missing something? Why wouldn’t you harmonize in a 4 minute love-ish song? What is it exactly about this melody that allows it to be acceptable without harmony? Am I over-reacting? Probably.

Act 2 begins with churchbells, which I edited out originally, oops. We get a few great solos, notably Evermore Without You, All For Laura Reprise, and You Can Get Away With Anything. And we also get treated with Lost Souls, a personal favorite of mine. It’s a fast paced choral number in 7/8 time, a catchy melody, and, thank you Jesus, harmonies galore.

The Finale is dialog driven, but there’s a nice medley of tunes from the show to underscore the creepy ending. At the very end, we get, the 18th reprise of You See I Am No Ghost (Okay, 5th?) and we finish the show with a ton of grunting and groaning and slapping from what is clearly a 2-minute fight onstage that we cannot see. The 12 minute finale I only cut down to 9 minutes, and it’s still awfully long. Especially with all the noisy stage fighting, it doesn’t make for a great listen.

But. Woman in White will always be one of my favorite broadway “flops” and I hope to see it return someday. (Worth noting, I know there was a 2017 West End revival, but there is little media from it and I never saw it). Maybe next time with a well produced cast album 😀